He was married to Maye Musk and also to Heide Musk, with whom he has two children, Alexandra and Rose. So we got one, thank God at a discount, and with that computer he taught himself, using Disk Operating System, which is DOS, to program, Errol said. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done, he continued. "Back when I was ~$100k negative with student debt," he wrote. The headline of the story read, "Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain't About The Money).". Given Elon Musks interest in exploration and adventure, its no surprise he descends from intrepid stock, and its Errols side of the family that is seemingly responsible for his innovative, envelope-pushing genes. And we spent three weeks making our rent-controlled apartment livable in Toronto, Maye tweeted. Fortier, Alexander. Esquire, 5 June 2015, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a35508/elon-musk-college-years-canada-u-penn/. In December 2019, Elon denied the emerald mine-and-lavish-lifestyle story on Twitter, saying it was a lie. A recurring theme on social media is the claim that Musks father owned an emerald mine and paid for his sons privileged upbringing and education. Musk has denied that story. "Nothing, nothing. 2021, https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-Elon-Musks-family-got-their-wealth-from-apartheid-emerald-mining. At some point after the shooting, the relationship between dad Errol and son Elon soured. Curiously, Errol has said nothing more about the controversial emerald mine story in the years since, even in recent interviews like his discussion with Forbes last year. 2023 The Moguldom Nation. . In my experience, there is nothing you can do, Elon said of Errol. [10] She gave birth to three children; Elon Reeve Musk born on 28 June 1971, Kimbal Reeve Musk born on 20 September 1972, and Tosca Musk born on 20 July 1974. All About Errol Musk." Errol and a co-pilot were flying a plane from. Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. They never made it to their destination. Twitter, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/. ERROL IS A RETIRED SOUTH AFRICAN ENGINEER. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in South Africa. * The headline of this article was updated toreflect that the Musk family once owned the mine in question, and no longer do. I said, Oh, all right. It was that lifestyle, Errol says, that turned Elon into the kind of merchant adventurer who would later break the rules of the motoring business with Tesla, then go on to change spaceflight with SpaceX. Errol built his wealth as a prominent electromechanical engineer and entrepreneur in South Africa, reports The South African. After Maye and Errol divorced in 1980, Elon mostly lived with his father, who says he owned thoroughbred horses, a yacht, several houses and a Cessna. In Errol's case, we sent a message to his Facebook profile. Where is this bs coming from?" "My [former] wife doesn't speak to me, even when we're together, she won't speak to me, so we haven't spoken to one other for 37 years. The emerald mine was not mentioned in that interview. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in . "But I mean, we were living together. Our offices are for administrative purposes only, no visitors will be accepted without an appointment. Instead, we will concentrate on the two Business Insider South Africa articles mentioned by Arnold that appeared to provide the roots of the "apartheid emerald mine" rumor. [6][7] In a 2018 interview with Business Insider, Musk boasted that as a result of the emerald mine "we had so much money we couldn't even close our safe. Errol Musk, the family's patriarch, is in the news after confirming he fathered a second secret love child with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, 35. They also emphasize anecdotes from Elon and his mother about the hard work and squalor they endured in Canada in those years. Later, on Sept. 20, 2022, hecalledRobert Reich "an idiot and a liar" for tweeting a video that pushed the emerald mine wealth rumor as fact. Bill Gates' mom helped Microsoft get a deal with IBM. Errol and Heide had two children of their own, but he also helped raise Jana. He's having a tantrum, like a spoilt child. @spylinen tweeted, The mine was in Zambia, which became independent of the UK in 1964. Errol Musk, the familys patriarch, is in the news after confirming he fathered a second secret love child with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, 35. Errol and a co-pilot were flying a plane from South Africa to England to sell the aircraft but when they couldn't make a scheduled stop in Saudi Arabia, he pivoted his plan and changed his life. It was a lucrative decision. The Twitter account no longer exists. r/EnoughMuskSpam via Reddit.com, 18 Dec. 2021, https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/rj689s/elon_musk_and_the_emerald_mine/. Musk had earlier slammed Reich for misrepresenting his background in the post, which argued that "self-made billionaires are a myth" and named the SpaceX founder and other prominent business. He said that they stopped in Djibouti to avoid pricey airport fees, and there happened to meet some Italian merchants who offered to buy the plane from him then and there. Where is this bs coming from? Bloomberg.com, 22 May 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-22/elon-musk-speaks-frankly-on-coronavirus-spacex-and-rage-tweets. On July 28, 2014, Forbes.com published an interview with Elon Musk, which was conducted by Jim Clash. One thing most of us can agree on is that there is a more nuanced conversation to be had about how Musk specifically and South Africas white population in general, even those who didnt own mines benefitted from apartheid. Former Tesla employee Marcus Vaughn, who worked in the Fremont, California, factory in 2017, alleged that the companys production floor was a hotbed for racist behavior. Supervisors regularly used the N word around Black workers and he said he was fired after complaining to human resources about workplace harassment. We reached out to Reich to ask if he could provide evidence of his assertion, but did not receive a response before this story was published. Errols grandmother was Canadas first chiropractor, while Errols own mom and dad were the first two people to fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine airplane, according to Forbes magazine. At the conference, Elon talked to some professors who told Errol, This boy needs to get his hands on one of these computers. But I've been in physical danger before. ", In 2018, he explained that he was helping Jana get over a breakup at the time of Rushi's conception, but he initially assumed the baby's father was Jana's ex. Musk's revelation about his father's financial situation in the '90s comes after a Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, claimed on Twitter that 'self-made billionaires' are a myth and Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa. Errol admitted to having affairs, but his ex-wife, now a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, said the problems in their marriage extended beyond infidelity, alleging that Errol was abusive. So I became a half owner of the mine," he told the outlet. It was revealed last weekthat he welcomed twochildren with an executiveat his artificial intelligence company, Neuralink, just weeks before hissecond child with his ex-girlfriend, Grimes,was born. Kaizer Chiefs to sign more Stellenbosch players? [20] At the time of their daughter's birth, according to The Times, Musk was 72 and Jana Bezuidenhout was 30 years old. Elon and Kimbal allegedly sold 2 emeralds: one worth $800 and another worth $1200. "Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege." He also co-founded PayPal, which means a Twitter user said The WHOLE bank on the internet was started by him (yes, your credit card as well). By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. The patriarch confirmed the shootings to the publication in 2017, saying manslaughter charges were later dropped because he acted in self-defense. The article attributed the source of Elon Musks wealth to apartheid. The Tesla CEO has fathered 10 children. The user tweeted: If this is half of an article is a small glimpse into the apartheid mines his [family-owned] haha even [T]he Onion tells more truthful stories than CNN and Fox. We were going to fly into Jeddah and there was a religious holiday and they said if we come in now we have to pay $2,000 but if we wait 10 days we can come in at no charge. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "Bezos' Comments on Workers after Spaceflight Draws Rebuke." If I could have another child I would. Musk's defenders have also pointed out that Errol's alleged trade took place in the mid-1980s, at which point Zambia was independent. Soon after Elon left for Canada, his mother, Maye, moved there too, along with Elons brother, Kimbal, and sister, Tosca. However, again, the story was at least partially unavailable on that website, too. Elon has himself admitted that his father has a very high IQ and is brilliant at engineering.. SASSA: Here are your March 2023 grant payment dates. On Feb. 23, 2018, Business Insider SA published a story with the headline, "'We had so much money we couldn't even close our safe': Elon Musk's Dad tells BI about the family's insanely casual attitude to wealth." Are you prioritizing your cable entertainment bill over protecting and investing in your family? According to Ashlee Vances 2017 biography of the Tesla founder, The Musk family owned one of the biggest houses in Pretoria thanks to the success of Errols engineering business, which included large projects such as office buildings, retail complexes, residential subdivisions, and an air force base.. Standing with the cash in his hand, Errol was made another offer he couldnt refuse: Would he like to buy half an emerald mine for half of his new riches? Errol Musk bought 50% of the emerald mine in 1969 for about 40,000, which is equal to about 160 000 today. Im not sure if replying to a satire site and amplifying their articles reach is necessarily the best idea, but Musk felt that this was a hill worth dying on. "And then there'd still be all these notes sticking out and we'd sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets.". I left South Africa by myself when I was 17 with just a backpack & suitcase of books. This is a pretty awful lie. The interview is no longer available on the Forbes website. However, Errol also told the outlet that life in apartheid South Africa was ultimately "better" and "safer" than it is today. "One thing he claims is he gave us a whole bunch of money to start, my brother and I, to start up our first company. https://web.archive.org/. Kimbal is a millionaire who owns restaurant chains and spearheads a nonprofit education program, The Kitchen Community, which grows vegetables in the U.S. Tosca is a film producer and director. His mother Maye responded on Twitter in December 2019 in defense of Elon. So we went to this guy's prefab and he opened his safe and there was just stacks of money and he paid me out, 80,000, it was a huge amount of money, he said. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done., He was such a terrible human being. SpaceX, his rocket company, is valued at $20 billion-plus. by Marilynn Manuel 13-02-2023 13:43 R/EnoughMuskSpam via Reddit.com, 5 Dec. 2019, www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/e6j76f/his_family_stole_an_emerald_mine/. As Arnold noted, the headline for this story was later corrected more than two years after it was published, sometime around late July or early August 2020,according to page captures from the Internet Archive. mark_able_jones_. The entire episode started when the satirical publication The Onion published a piece on the wealthiest person in each American state. The eccentric billionaire once again attempted to set the record straight about his familys emerald mines to respond to Twitter user @howlpolitically. "What's very difficult for others is easy for me. "Elon Musk's family owns an emerald mine" was corrected to "Elon Musk's family once owned an emerald mine." So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years.. While the story merely pointed to the facts that apartheid existed at the time and the Musk family made money from emerald mining, Musk to his frustration has found it hard to brush off the narrative of his wealth being linked to apartheid. Elon clarified that his father was never physically abusive toward him and that he once tried to mend the relationship by inviting his father to live with him in the United States. Bridges to Italy tweeted, Yeah, hes not that bright, just like the guy who started this thread. [3][4], Musk worked as a pilot, a sailor, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a consultant, and a property developer, before retiring early. ", In the post, he claimed that his family stood in opposition to apartheid, saying he went so far as to be elected as a Pretoria city councillor to aid that opposition. More answers and details are available in Arnold's article. Image via Instagram @mayemusk. "She wasn't planned," Errol said of his youngest child. Errol met Maye Haldeman the lady who would become his wife at Clapham High School. This story will be updated if any further details come to light. There is a more nuanced conversation to be had about how Elon Musk specifically and South Africas white population in general benefitted from apartheid. We contacted Elon publicly on Twitter. Musk, who is never shy of saying his say online, took to Twitter to show his disappointment with The Onion and took the opportunity to shout-out the publications competition, The Babylon Bee. Standing with the cash in his hand, Errol was made another offer he couldn't refuse: Would he like to buy half an emerald mine for half of his new riches? Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.". Journalism strengthens democracy. Get down!'. By email, Clash told us he had no idea why it was no longer hosted by Forbes. He has a net worth of $2 million and is living quite comfortably. Note: The reference to Zip2 concerned Elon's "first enterprise" in 1995. To summarize Arnold's story would be difficult, as it contained a considerable amount of data and analysis. In 1970, Errol married modelMaye Haldeman Musk before the pair welcomed three children: Elon, Kimbal and Tosca. The Buffalo News via San Jose Mercury News via Newspapers.com, 20 Apr. Since at least 2018, a rumor has been shared online about Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk in regard to his father's purported past ownership of an "apartheid emerald mine" or "slave emerald mine." Bloomberg.com, 22 May 2020. www.bloomberg.com, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-22/elon-musk-speaks-frankly-on-coronavirus-spacex-and-rage-tweets. By some accounts, Elon is reported to have witnessed the attack, with Errol later telling Rolling Stone that he acted in self-defense; he was never convicted of any crime. I can't see any reason not to. "Can Elon Musk Really Get Us To Mars Within 10 Years?" In 2019, Elon Musk confronted the Twitter talking point about his father's supposed emerald mine head-on, writing, "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. Its unclear how old Elon was at the time and whether he was even present is in dispute. Elon Musk addressed the recent social storm when claims related his family's emerald mines in apartheid-South Africa resurfaced online. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. Forbes, 1 Oct. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2016/10/01/can-elon-musk-really-get-us-to-mars-within-10-years/. So we decided to head back to Lake Tanganyika from where we were, I think we were in Djibouti., Errol Musk (father of one Elon Musk) on raising one of the world's most famous billionaires: http://t.co/Fg8xmqN1L0 pic.twitter.com/LVJyMdebZK. Hull, Dana, and Patrick May. Here is the incredible true story of Errol Musk and the striking similarities he shares with his powerful son. Not for 'At Least' a Few Weeks, Says Elon Musk, Elon Musk's Ex Justine Calls Twitter Employees' Letter Protesting Reported Staff Cuts a 'Very Bad Idea', Elon Musk Says He's Buying Twitter to 'Help Humanity' And Doesn't Want It to Be 'Free-for-All Hellscape', Elon Musk Says Kanye West's Twitter Was Reinstated Before He Took Over the Company, Elon Musk Plans to Cut 75 Percent of Twitter's Workforce If He Takes Over the Company: Report. Errol has long since retired from the engineering business and now lives a quiet life in the Western Cape in South Africa. He said that he sold and traded these emeralds himself and that at one point, Elon himself even went out to sell some of the stones. ", According to the story, Errol said that Elon "once walked the streets of New York with emeralds in his pocket." A common story about Musk on social media is that his father owned part of an emerald mine, providing a bedrock of wealth that buoyed Elon up to his current level of success. [20] Musk has a total of seven children. Instead, they focus on describing how hard he worked in his teenage years and early adulthood, how much debt he accrued by attending college and his disdain for his father. Clash's same 2014 interview was also republished by AskMen.com on Jan. 2, 2015. While in Djibouti, he and his co-pilot sold their plane to some Italian nationals. After the divorce, Elon lived with his father in Pretoria, where he attended Pretoria Boys High. Beyond that, we were unable to find any evidence that showed money generated from his father's involvement in the mine helped Elon build his wealth in North America. Once again, he said that he paid his own way through college, ending with around $100,000 in student debt, and added thathe started his first company with no funding and one computer he built himself. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. What Happened: Musk's comments came on a Twitter. I wish. It is often claimed that Musk's father, Errol Musk, once owned shares in a Zambian emerald mine, and that Musk subsequently enjoyed an . The gist of the claim was that Elon's father, Errol Musk, who reports say has been estranged from his son for some time, owned an emerald mine during apartheid in South Africa, and that it was seed money from his father's wealth from the mine that made it possible for him to become the American billionaire he is today. Answer these 2 simple questions & WIN R1000 in cash! He was such a terrible human being. With his new riches, Errol also bought half of an emerald mine. Errol and Elons feud has reportedly been exacerbated by the patriarchs eyebrow-raising relationships. Their half-sister.. Click Here to Get Smart on Protecting Your Family and Loves Ones, No Matter What Happens. One of their homes was in Waterkloof, a leafy suburb of Pretoria that was popular with foreign diplomats. Smart Policies are as low as $30 a month, No Medical Exam Required [23], In 1998, Musk shot and killed three out of six or seven burglars who forced their way into his Johannesburg home and who opened fire upon detection.[24]. Several respondents on social media disputed the emerald mine and privileged-lifestyle story, defending Musks intelligence and questioning the intelligence of the person who started the thread. 2021, https://savingjournalism.substack.com/p/i-talked-to-elon-musk-about-journalism. According to reporting we reviewed, the stake his father had in the emerald mine appeared to have both started and ended in the 1980s. Eligon, John, and Lynsey Chutel. In a 2019 . "So we decided to head back to Lake Tanganyika from where we were, I think we were in Djibouti.". It would have been great if someone was paying for my college, but my dad had neither the ability nor the inclination to do so. It was also shared on Reddit.com. Has even greenlit racism by saying those on receiving end need thick skin.https://t.co/DhpANcrqNp https://t.co/OESO1BJTtE, Can he be held responsible for his dad's ethics tho? ", Errol and Elon have an acrimonious relationship. We also reached out to media relations personnel at SpaceX, where he is the founder and CEO, as well as Tesla and Twitter. Theyd seen I was sleeping in one morning, and they said, Oh lets just try, lets go.. "I paid my own way through collegethrough student loans, scholarships, working jobsand ended up with $100,000 of student debt," Musk says. The story made no further mention of the mine. In that context, its probably understandable that Musk decided enough was enough and felt he needed to answer the claims online. So we had this planeload of contraband and an overdue passport from another person. Related stories Making better AI is Elon Musk's new object of .